


what nostalgia does

by lovetalkwoo



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Middle School, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Attempt at Humor, Blackouts, Childhood, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff without Plot, Friendship, Holding Hands, Hugs, Humor, JaeYong - Freeform, M/M, Memory Related, Memory of the Past, Mentioned Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung, Mentioned Nakamoto Yuta, Mentioned Suh Youngho | Johnny, Middle School, No Angst, Nostalgia, Not Beta Read, Past, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Post-High School, Pouting, Reminiscing, Romantic Friendship, Some Humor, Sulking, Video & Computer Games, hinted romance - Freeform, my first fluff please bear with me, nostalgic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23690914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovetalkwoo/pseuds/lovetalkwoo
Summary: where, in the event of a blackout, they huddle around a candle or two to reminisce.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Lee Taeyong
Comments: 10
Kudos: 47





	what nostalgia does

**Author's Note:**

> a little piece of fluff written especially for the queen of fluff herself... i hope you enjoy it hehe <3
> 
> also! in this au, they're all the same age. haha. thank you for being flexible.

there were very few things in life that could make jaehyun lose his cool.

and even when he did lose his cool, it wasn’t your usual ‘throw a tantrum and make a scene’.

it was subtle.

more subtle than you think.

sometimes it came in the form of him sucking at his teeth over the smallest mishaps.

or maybe something even smaller.

like a faint crease in his eyebrows.

you’d have to have grown up with him, lived next door from him, and hung out with him incessantly while growing up to be able to pick up on these unnecessarily subtle habits that jaehyun had developed over the years.

and even then, thought taeyong as he watched his roommate, who had also been his childhood best friend and neighbor, fight with the candle with furrowed brows, you could miss it if you got distracted.

even just for a split second.

“you need help with that?” taeyong gloated as he sunk deeper into the back of their sofa.

jaehyun shook his head and muttered something soft that taeyong missed before diving, head first, to try and light the damn candle once again.

it remained dark.

it had remained dark for so long that taeyong had grown accustomed to the blackout that has since consumed their living room.

maybe they won’t even need candles after all.

“hold your breath.” taeyong advised in the abyss.

“what?”

“just hold your breath while you light the candle.” taeyong elaborates but just barely enough.

“hold my breath…” jaehyun muttered in disbelief like it was the dumbest thing he’s heard all day but does it anyway.

because, in all the years that they had spent attached to the hip, jaehyun had learned that there seemed to be something magical about him losing his composure.

it was as if every time he was about to crack, taeyong’s brain would be in its top condition.

jaehyun gasped and held his breath before lighting the candle once more.

“told ya,” taeyong folded his legs together and pulling a pillow onto his lap as the candle lit up like it was nothing.

“i don’t get it.”

“you know what i think it is?” taeyong asked, talking about the dynamic between them.

“what?”

“i think i’m actually the smart one in this friendship.” he lifts his arm as jaehyun leans over to lie on the pillow in his lap, “and you’re the leech.”

“yeah?” jaehyun laughs, “explain.”

“i think i’m the one with the biggest brain in our friendship but i can’t fully use it because you’re always leeching off my brainpower. and that’s also why we’re always together. because once you leave, you’re brain dead.” taeyong let his words go wild as he softly played with the unruly locks of wet curls on jaehyun’s head, “and whenever you’re in a ditch and you stop using your leeching powers, i regain control over my brain and become the ‘smart one’ in the friendship once again. the way it should be.” taeyong reasoned proudly.

“right…” jaehyun teased and taeyong’s laugh echoed through the dark living room, “you might be onto something…”

taeyong rolls his eyes, “when was the last time there was a blackout, anyway?” he asked out of nowhere, “sixth grade? seemed like forever ago.”

and jaehyun nods, “yeah, it was six grade. we were playing video games in your bedroom, remember?”

“agh, fuck yeah of course i remember,” taeyong groaned, “we almost beat the boss and the power cuts off.” he throws his head back dramatically, “we almost had it.”

jaehyun rolled his eyes, “almost is a little generous don’t you think?”

but taeyong wasn’t quite listening.

he was still stuck cursing the darkness with his fist lifted high, “curse the days before autosave in games.”

jaehyun supposes that there are just some things that never change.

he shook his head softly at the memory of taeyong dramatically declaring his undying love to his stuffed bear on multiple occasions in an effort to prove to jaehyun that he could act.

suddenly nostalgic.

“hey,” jaehyun chimed, shifting on taeyong’s lap to get comfortable, “remember how we screamed so loudly when the power went off that your mom had to rush upstairs to check up on us? to make sure we were okay?”

usually, nostalgia was something that jaehyun tried to stay away from.

because he knew how easily it was for someone to get lost in the past.

especially when you think it could never happen to you.

and the next thing you know, you’re in your sixties with a heart condition and little to no retirement funds because you had spent your entire youth looking back instead of working forward.

but, tonight … was different.

and jaehyun allowed himself to indulge in the past just this once.

because, just this once, it felt acceptable.

especially accompanied by taeyong’s contagious, rumbling laughter that shot at each corner of the apartment living room.

smoothing out all the flaws to create the kind of safe, sturdy bubble that jaehyun hadn’t visited in years.

“imagine running upstairs to your son’s room to find him and his best friend crying on the ground about some dragon and turtle hybrid.” taeyong laughed, bouncing jaehyun’s head as he did so.

it was a wonderful rhythm.

“to be fair,” jaehyun smiled, “it was our first time reaching that level. and we had been playing that game for, what…? months?”

“ugh,” taeyong groaned through his smile, cheeks reddening from the memory, “three, four months, i think.”

“god, we sucked.”

“big time.”

“and you know what’s the worst part?”

“the fact that we thought we did pretty good?”

“the fact that we thought we did pretty good.” jaehyun echoed as he nodded.

he was smiling.

maybe nostalgia wasn’t too bad once in a while.

“that wasn’t even the final boss, was it?”

jaehyun shook his head and instinctively rested his cheek against taeyong’s left palm that had wrapped itself affectionately around him, “what was another stupid thing that we did?” he urged taeyong to remember.

“oh boy. we’d be here all night.”

“well, we’ve got all the time in the world.”

taeyong smiled down at his best friend, “you’re right.” he said, picking up his best friend’s head to shuffle his numb legs, “so, where should we begin?”

to which jaehyun immediately started laughing.

“what?”

jaehyun doesn’t stop. he sits up straight and holds his stomach with both hands. whining as he reaches his limit. he can’t stop. he keeps laughing.

“what?” taeyong throws his pillow at jaehyun who catches it and places it behind his own back for support.

“yuta…” was all that jaehyun could muster in the midst of his laughter.

and taeyong already knew what he was talking about.

all the embarrassing memory of the confessions that he had thrown at the poor japanese exchange student from ninth-grade, “fuck, fuck, fuck.” taeyong mumbled into the palms of his hands, “do you think yuta left thinking i had a fetish for japanese culture?”

“aw, come on.” jaehyun wiped at his tears and leaned forward to tug at his best friend sleeve, “it’s been six years now, i highly doubt he’d remember that…” he trailed off as taeyong softly dropped into his embrace, “interaction.”

“you think so?” taeyong nudged further and further into the chest that he had curled up in multiple times.

“yeah.” it came out soft. jaehyun tightened his hug, “i’m sure he doesn’t remember it anymore.”

“not even the part where i presented him the cheap supermarket sushi and screamed ‘i love you’ in japanese at his shoes?”

jaehyun smiled, taeyong’s back, “no, i’m sure he doesn’t remember that part where you offered him sushi and screamed jibberish at his shoes.”

“okay.” taeyong giggled softly into the crook of jaehyun’s arm that pulled him up closer and closer until his lips just barely brushed jaehyun’s neck, “thank god.”

they’ve been like this before.

more times than they could count.

it was just normal for them.

jaehyun pulls taeyong’s legs and rest them on top of his thigh, “comfortable?”

taeyong nodded, lips moving softly up and down the side of his neck.

yes, they’ve done this all their lives.

always.

it has always been normal for them to immediately lean on each other just like that whenever either of them felt down because of a relationship, a disappointing grade, and so on.

like they were one person.

just sort of floating in time.

taeyong looped his arm around the back of jaehyun’s neck and adjusted himself so that he’s closer, “when do you think the power will come back?”

“i’m not sure…”

“then why don’t we tell another story.”

“yeah? this time, let’s make fun of me.” jaehyun commented teasingly and taeyong giggled into his neck, “although, it’d be a little difficult.”

“a little?” taeyong scoffed, “remember that time when you went on the double date with me and johnny? when was that? halloween?”

jaehyun sighed. but just barely.

after all, there was nothing to complain about.

it was a grave that he had dug for himself, “yeah. senior year, halloween.”

taeyong nodded.

“what was the name of the boy that johnny brought?”

“um…” taeyong hummed, “fuck, i swear it’s on the tip of my tongue. doh…? soh…?”

and jaehyun drops his head and cracks a smile as the name of the boy jogs right back into his memory, along with every single embarrassing little details that came with him, “doyoung.”

“yes!”

jaehyun shook his head, “i will never forgive you and johnny for not telling me that the party was not a costume party.”

“what did you come as?”

“harry potter…”

and taeyong threw his head back laughing.

but it didn’t sound menacing.

it never did.

if anything, it was contagious.

contagious in a kind of way that made jaehyun feel things that he didn’t want to feel.

really, he should feel embarrassed.

but a smile creeps onto his the tips of his lips regardless, “i thought it was a good costume…” he laughed, snuggling taeyong closer into him.

“i agree.” his best friend nodded, “it was very well planned.”

“god, we were stupid.”

taeyongs nods in agreement, “so stupid…”

“what time is it?” jaehyun asks as their laughter slowly meld into the kind of silence that they have both become used to.

one that just kinds of sits there. comfortably.

like an old friend.

“i don’t know, my phone died. where’s your phone?”

“it’s on the coffee table, let me get it.” he said, his hand climbing up taeyong’s back to keep him steady and up against him as he leaned over to pick up his phone, “it’s eleven…”

“an hour…”

and jaehyun nods, settling back into the pillow again.

“feels like it’s been hours.”

“that’s what nostalgia does to you.” jaehyun lectures without meaning to sound so matter-of-fact.

“when’s the last time we were like this?”

“what do you mean?”

“like this,” taeyong repeated, “just curled up against each other talking about nothing like the old times.”

 _ages_.

that was the first answer that came to jaehyun’s mind.

ages and ages.

three years.

three years too many.

“a long time."

**Author's Note:**

> check me out on [twitter!](https://www.twitter.com/lovetalkwoo) or [buy me a cuppa coffee!](https://www.ko-fi.com/bbywoo)


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